By now I’m sure you’ve heard the news that SSD drives have increased in price. Some quite dramatically. They are increasing costs of computers, memory sticks and external SSDs. You can change your storage habits, be more diligent in how you back up and save media, or just pay the increased costs.
Working through my taxes for the year, I noticed these price increases on external SSDs I had purchased from Amazon, so I got to looking at what those increases have been. Rather than keeping that info to myself, I thought I’d share it here. Some of these purchaes go back years as Amazon stores all your purchases from forever so this was also interesting to look beyond just a year or so ago when prices for flash storage started to rise.
The biggest increase
I bought this SanDisk 4TB SSD on November 12, 2024. After taxes it was $327.74. I thought, at the time, that was high as I usually maxed out at buying 2TB drives. But what’s that price now, at the time of this writing on March 21, 2026?
That more than doubled in price, resulting in a 142% increase.
And a 2TB?
I bought this 2TB SanDisk SSD in July 2022 for $190. (Remember when these SanDisk SSDs were having problems?) I’ve purchased a lot of 2TB SSDs as I’ve always thought that’s a sweet spot between storage capacity and price. SSD prices have always fluctuated, but I can’t remember a steep increase as we’re seeing now.
That’s a 50% increase so not as bad on the 2TB vs the 4 TB.
Two different 1TB brands?
I have tried a lot of different SSD brands over the years. Of course, when I bought them way back when, some were made by different vendors who have since been bought and then split.
I’ve never been a big fan of the My Passport brand, so I think I’ve only bought one of these over the years, though it has performed just fine.
A 51% increase.
The Samsung T series drives (T5, T7) are updated regularly so here’s a look at a 1TB Samsung T5 purchased in 2019:
And clicking the Amazon Buy it Again button?
That’s not too bad, only a 5% or so increase.
And the first external SSD I ever purchased?
I bought this Samsung T1 500GB drive back in July of 2015. And yes, that was very expensive back 11 years ago but external SSDs were still relatively uncommon, kind of expensive but very fast compared to spinning disks. The equivalent today?
What’s crazy is I still use that old T1 for storing sound effects, and it’s still going strong (though I do have it backed up).
And spinning disks?
SSDs aren’t the only drives increasing in cost. Large capacity spinning drives are as well.
I bought this 12TB SanDisk G-DRIVE last year for archiving purposes. I can’t really dislike this drive; it still serves a purpose, but its price has increased as well.
That’s a 27% increase in just a year. This price is from B&H but Amazon shows a similar price increase on this drive.
What about sticks?
In 2023 we bought an SSD upgrade for our Playstation.
$60, dirt cheap. And now?
That’s triple the price and a 200% increase.
The bigger the capacity you go, the more these prices seem to have increased. A similar 128GB SSD stick only increased from $15 to $25, which isn’t small at 66%.
Yes, this is depressing, as we kinda have AI to blame. For every amazing app you create in Claude Code, you have a ton of slop in Sora AI. This is the world we have created.
How we deal with these price increases is anyone’s guess. I have been repurposing all my SSDs (and recommending clients do the same). You can store old and archived media back on the trusty bare spinning disks or invest in some shared storage. And LTO is still a thing.
Take this very unscientific and quick look at the current state of SSD prices for what it is … unscientific and quick. But I thought it was interesting so I thought I would share. Keep looking for deals when you can find them, as we don’t know when prices will come back down. If ever.
